Executive Search Success Story: Building a Smart Factory and Industrial AI Leadership Team to Digitize 30 Plants at a Global Industrial Equipment Manufacturer

How JRG Partners executed a confidential, multi-role North American executive search strategy that equipped a publicly traded industrial equipment manufacturer with the digital manufacturing, industrial AI, manufacturing systems, automation, and operational excellence leadership required to move from isolated pilots to a connected smart factory program across 30 plants, lifting overall equipment effectiveness and cutting unplanned downtime.

The Challenge

An industrial equipment manufacturer had spent three years and more than $80M on smart factory pilots, predictive maintenance proofs of concept, and plant-level dashboards, with little to show at scale: pilots had not been replicated, data from different plants could not be compared, OT and IT organizations disagreed on architecture and security, automation projects were run plant by plant, and the board had asked why competitors were reporting measurable productivity gains from industrial AI while the company reported pilots. The chief operating officer concluded that the program lacked leadership with scaled experience. Executive leadership identified several critical vulnerabilities threatening the program:

• More than $80M in pilots with no replicated, scaled deployments across 30 plants
• No common data architecture, making plant performance and AI models non-transferable
• OT and IT organizations divided on architecture, cybersecurity, and ownership
• Automation and robotics projects managed locally with inconsistent standards and vendors
• Operational excellence disconnected from digital initiatives, with no shared improvement model
• Board pressure for measurable OEE, downtime, and cost outcomes from industrial AI

Recognizing that scaling required leadership that had done it before, the chief operating officer and board engaged JRG Partners to recruit a Chief Digital Manufacturing Officer, Vice President of Industrial AI & Data Science, Vice President of Manufacturing Systems & OT-IT Integration, Vice President of Automation & Robotics Engineering, and Vice President of Operational Excellence. The company required an executive search partner with deep smart factory expertise and access to leaders who had scaled industrial AI across global plant networks.

Why They Chose JRG Partners

Smart Factory & Industrial AI Focus

JRG Partners maintains a dedicated practice serving manufacturers deploying smart factory, industrial AI, and advanced automation programs, with deep recruiting expertise across digital manufacturing, industrial data science, OT-IT integration, automation engineering, and operational excellence. This focus ensured an immediate understanding of scaled deployment architecture, OT security, and the leadership profiles that convert pilots into plant-wide results.

Scaled Deployment Experience

Our firm has extensive experience recruiting executives who have deployed connected plant and industrial AI programs across dozens of sites, with a clear understanding of standardization, change management, and measurable outcomes.

Multi-Role Execution

Our team specializes in running coordinated digital manufacturing, AI, systems, automation, and operational excellence searches in parallel, ensuring leaders are selected as a complementary unit aligned to a single program architecture.

Our Executive Search Strategy

Phase 1 — Program Architecture Alignment

Our consultants partnered directly with the chief operating officer, chief information officer, and board to review pilot results, data architecture, OT-IT governance, automation portfolio, and board expectations, defining five executive profiles aligned with a scaled program architecture.

Phase 2 — Talent Identification & Mapping

Our research team performed an extensive talent mapping initiative targeting digital manufacturing, industrial AI, manufacturing systems, automation, and operational excellence executives at industrial manufacturers, automation and industrial software companies, and advanced manufacturing operations who had led documented multi-plant deployments. Over 460 executives were systematically assessed across these sectors.

Phase 3 — Candidate Engagement

Priority during outreach was given to leaders with a documented history of scaling smart factory programs across 20 or more plants, building unified industrial data platforms, deploying machine learning models for quality, maintenance, and scheduling at scale, integrating OT and IT under common security architecture, standardizing automation and robotics engineering, and linking digital initiatives to operational excellence systems. Only candidates meeting these strict performance baselines advanced.

Phase 4 — Selection Process

Finalists presented scaled program plans to the chief operating officer and board, completed structured leadership assessments, and underwent reference verification focused on quantified OEE, downtime, and cost outcomes from prior deployments.

Key Outcomes

• 460+ digital manufacturing, industrial AI, and automation executive profiles mapped across North America.
• Successfully placed a synchronized leadership tier spanning digital manufacturing, industrial AI, manufacturing systems, automation, and operational excellence within seven months.
• Unified the industrial data platform and OT security architecture across 30 plants within fifteen months.
• Reduced unplanned downtime by 32% through industrial AI at 24 plants.
• Lifted network OEE by 9 points and deployed 180 robotic cells in two years.
• Delivered $140M in annualized productivity savings.